Kani Payments, the disruptive UK data reconciliation, and reporting platform have today announced that it has been selected as a Mastercard Start Path company. Approximately 1,500 start-ups annually are evaluated for entry into the program.

Now, part of the latest cohort of the highly sought-after program, which has only a 2% acceptance rate, Kani Payments will have an opportunity to co-innovate with Mastercard to scale its automated reconciliation platform and advance its global expansion plans.

The award-winning SaaS platform has already reconciled more than €10 billion in processed payments volume to date and will use the unique opportunity to bring automation, accuracy, and compliance to payments reconciliation and reporting to fintechs, acquirers, and financial institutions worldwide. This is at a time when data volumes are surging exponentially, having a massive effect on the data-heavy fintech sector: the amount of data globally is expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025, increasing from an estimated 44 zettabytes in 2020.

Having already successfully disrupted the fintech scene in the North of England and forged relationships with a range of companies across the fintech spectrum globally, payment service providers, and other data-intensive businesses, Kani Payments will also have access to a diverse customer base as it executes plans to expand into the US and Asia in 2022.

Founded and led by Aaron Holmes, previously Chief Information Officer for Global Processing Services (GPS), the company takes pride in being an innovative and agile company that has been built from the ground up to transform a fast-paced and exciting sector.

“Joining the Mastercard Start Path Global program is the latest exciting stepping stone in what’s already been an impressive and successful story for our ambitious company. We‘re proud to be trailblazing a fintech hub from our special corner here in the UK while charging into new markets and territories, as well as attracting and retaining a team of top, diverse talent outside the capital.”

“The support, insight, and knowledge we will gain from the team at Mastercard as part of this scheme will not only be of invaluable insight and benefit to Kani Payments but, more importantly, our existing and prospective customers who have come to rely on the efficiencies afforded by our unique platform.”

“We strive to save even more businesses vast amounts of time and help them to tackle the problem of the increasingly complex digital payments, regulation, and compliance requirements so that they can spend more time focusing on building superb fintech products and services.”

                                                                                Aaron Holmes, CEO & Co-founder, Kani.

Mastercard Start Path is an award-winning start-up engagement program within the Mastercard Developers portfolio, which provides the services and tools fintech innovators need to iterate at each stage of their journey, transform bold ideas and achieve scale at pace to bring more people into the digital economy.

Founded in 2014, the scheme has engaged nearly 300 start-ups globally. Today these organizations are entering the public markets, reaching unicorn status, and entering extended commercial engagements with Mastercard and its customers.

Naresh Ponnana, Start Path Global lead at Mastercard, has mentored more than a dozen start-ups at Mastercard and works with the start-up founders to refine their vision with a deep dive into their business model and product.

“With start-ups, we know they’re juggling concepts for many products, across many markets, and many customers. Through the program, we try to point them to the one unique idea or opportunity to take to market in collaboration with Mastercard and our customers.”

“The Start Path program acts as a springboard for co-innovation with the start-ups, and in some cases, the opportunities tend to realize only after the program ends — either through the continued engagement with their mentors or through the host of other programs within the Mastercard Developers portfolio, from Engage to Fintech Express.”

                                                         Naresh Ponnana, Start Path Global lead at Mastercard

With previous success stories including Shieldpay, which utilized the program to build connections and unveil a sister solution called Paycast, as well as Zeta, the banking tech unicorn that launched a global partnership to jointly launch credit cards with issuers worldwide, the Mastercard Start Path Global program promises great things for forward-thinking companies such as Kani Payments.